


The Life Streamers

by MadManta



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: M/M, Minor Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart, Modern AU, Streamers - Freeform, chat fic, gamers au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:39:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27580136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadManta/pseuds/MadManta
Summary: The cast streams Among Us and Reno has never heard this new guy's voice before.
Relationships: Reno/Rude (Compilation of FFVII)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 51





	The Life Streamers

TakeMeBackToReno’s got thousands of subscribers. He’s got a whole room in his apartment that he’s spent _far_ too much money hanging up audio insulation panels. He’s got a (sponsored) gamer chair and a (sponsored) PC that lights up red and yellow, flashing like lightning bolts. His streaming channel on Twark has a very diligent team of mods to keep certain types from spamming his Twarkchat with the two flavors of chat he hates the most: people calling him a gaylord (only in much less savory terms, since Reno would very much consider himself lord of the gays), and people begging him to be their baby daddy (he’d much rather look for one of those himself, _so to speak_ ). He’s got custom emotes, most of which showcase his face, which is ever present in the bottom corner of all his streams.

He’s known for his wild red hair (though he’s dyed it black and green and once, pink, for various charity streams) and angular face and the two little slashes of red on his cheekbones, and his little emotes showcase his disembodied, chibified head in all manner of emotions, from outrage and ragequitting to doe-eyed and heart-filled.

He’s not the number one streamer in their tight knit network called The Life Streamers, by any means. CloudyDaze pulls in the most viewers, along with his two best friends, BlackDoggy and SilverSword. The three of them have a weird chemistry full of bickering, threats, and laughter, and they pull in millions of views even for streams where they sit around talking about eSports.

Hell, Reno’s not even as popular as their Token Female Contingent (though god knows if any of them found him referring to them as that they’d probably come to his house and kick his balls in — and to be fair, he’d completely deserve it). BeatRush is sweet and pretty, but focuses a lot more on rhythm games and fitness streaming. BreathOfFreshAerith on the other hand is feisty, and isn’t afraid to yell over the boys. It makes her a formidable opponent, especially when she pulls out the ‘tiny baby voice’ mechanic on people new to the group. She eats ‘em alive. Reno is also pretty sure BeatRush and BreathOfFreshAerith live together, but he’s a little more on the outskirts of the network and doesn’t want to just bring it up in their private discord.

Finally, BigBearett and Yufster also streamed with the group, though Reno tended not to watch their streams as much. BigBearett was a loving father and a big sap, and when he wasn’t playing battle royale games he was livestreaming cooking, which wasn’t really Reno’s _lifestyle_. And Yufster was a fun trickster when she participated in group streams, but mostly played trading card games and MOBAs. Also not Reno’s preferred gaming style.

Reno played hot garbage games, gimmick games, horror games, and a lot of kaizo mario levels. He was known for being hotheaded and freaking out on stream, though he’d often roll it back and smirk at the camera. “Haaaa, y’all thought I was actually mad. Pssh, I’ve never gotten mad at a game in my _life_ hOLY SHIT HOW DID I DIE AGAIN? BULLSHIT.”

However, Reno had his _big r_ ise to fame from another source. He went to high school with one of the top Twark streamers of all time, MisterVeep. Reno had been a recurring guest on MisterVeep’s ‘Mister Veep’s Prez Squad’ live streams. The MVPs was a very popular stream, though it frequently went into the vulgar, especially when Reno was involved. But, those are only three hours a day once a week — Reno is on the Sunday live show, not the Wednesday show — and the rest of his time, Reno spends six to eight hours a day at his desk, flirting with his more sane audience in Chat and living up to a fairly exuberant personality. Reno hadn’t exactly been invited to join MisterVeep’s network, though it was fair, as he’d joined his college buddies’ network long before Veep had reached out to him to join part of the live show.

The Life Streamers had gotten very popular as more of a team effort channel, however. They frequently squad streamed, and they played games that emphasized that kind of interaction between both the other streamers, and time to just quietly talk to their individual Chats. Their popularity skyrocketed as one game in particular rose to fame, and Reno knew Veep would want a piece of that.

Mister Veep — or as Reno knew him privately, Rufus Shinra — messaged him one afternoon, asking if he and a friend could jump in when there were openings in the Life Streamers’ next game. Cloud, the mostly official owner of the Life Streamers, had readily agreed to it.

And so now, in the lobby of the game, was all the names Reno recognized, except one. He’d assumed Rufus would have invited someone like ElenasBitchBootcamp, who was usually on with Reno. But this is just some mystery name floating above the little game avatar. Reno just leaned against his desk, listening to his headphones fill with the Discord voice audio.

CloudyDaze: Alright, I think we’re a full lobby. Nice.  
BlackDoggy: Whooah!  
BreathofFreshAerith: Hello everyone! Hello, fresh meat!  
MisterVeep: Hey guys.  
TakeMeBackToReno: Heyyyy my dude. Welcome.  
SilverSword: Uh oh. Big name. Don’t know if I can handle the fame this close.  
CloudyDaze: (laughing) Don’t be a prick, prick.  
SilverSword: Cloud, you _know_ that’s the only thing I _can_ be. You _like_ it. You _laughed._  
  
(All at once)  
CloudyDaze: Don’t call me out like this, bro.  
BreathofFreshAerith: (laughing hard) It’s true, I love to hate that man.  
BigBearrett: Here they go again.

CloudyDaze: We good to go?  
PolitelyRude: Yeah.  
TakeMeBackToReno: (choking) WHOOAH.

Reno chokes on his iced coffee at the unfamiliar voice in his ear: it’s deeper than any voice he’s heard in his damn life, but still smooth as butter. He leans exaggeratedly into his microphone’s pop filter.

TakeMeBackToReno: Who the fuck was _that_?  
(Entire lobby laughs)  
TakeMeBackToReno: No no why are we laughing, for real, who _was_ that?  
PolitelyRude: Uhh, hi, Reno.  
TakeMeBackToReno: (face growing red) Oh my _god_.  
MisterVeep: Sorry, I always forget the voice thing gets people. Everyone, Rude, Rude, Everyone.  
CloudyDaze: Damn, that _is_ impressive.  
TakeMeBackToReno: (fairly breathlessly) Hi Rude. Veep, why the hell have I not met this man?  
PolitelyRude: What, you don’t watch the Wednesday stream? (teasing) I’m hurt. I always watch you and Elena on Sunday.  
TakeMeBackToReno: (choking) _Oh my god_.  
BreathOfFreshAerith: Wow, I’ve never heard Reno cum live on stream before—

The entire lobby bursts into raucus laughing or complaining that they’ve taken it too far, and Reno slowly lets his head fall into his hands as he mutes himself from the Discord so that only his TwarkChat can hear him. “You guys,” he says, laughing so hard there’s tears in his eyes. “I’m gonna die.”

The game begins and Reno wipes at his eyes with another laugh. “I just got called out for not watching Veep’s second MVPs _and_ I almost chubbed up. This is definitely the worst day of my life.” He looks at his chat blowing up, spamming his flustered Reno emote, and several other ‘ASK HIM OUT’ messages. He stares at the camera. “Whaat, you thought I was actually affected?” His eyes soften. “I totally was though. Shit, wait, I haven’t even moved, they’re gonna think I’m suspicious.”

When they open up the first group meeting of the game, BlackDoggy and BeatRush are already dead. Reno is mostly quiet while everyone discusses what they were doing. When PolitelyRude’s voice comes over Discord, Reno lets his chin fall into one hand and stare off in the distance like a man who’s just seen a gorgeous naked man walk by.

BigBearett: Hold up, where’s my voice rival been at?  
PolitelyRude: (soft laugh) I’ve got nothing on you, buddy.  
BigBearett: Oh, I like this man, but I don’t think I can trust him for a damn second.  
PolitelyRude: That’s fair.  
Yufster: Naw, he’s right though. Where the hell you been, brown note?  
(Lobby laughs)  
PolitelyRude: Uhh, I had wires at the top left, and had to go to navigation—  
BreathOfFreshAerith: We have 15 seconds, we have to choose or skip.  
CloudyDaze: Wait, where the hell has RENO been?  
SilverSword: I don’t wanna know.  
(Voting ends, and Reno shakes his head.)  
TakeMeBackToReno: Oh, sorry, I was just listening to Deep Daddy and uh,  
BreathOfFreshAerith: Damn I thought I was jokin’ around before!  
SilverSword: I genuinely didn’t want to know.  
CloudyDaze: (laughing and squawking)

Reno mutes his mic again. “God, I’m gonna get assassinated or thrown out either way, they know I’m not playing the damn game the way I’m sposed to be.” He laughs indulgently at his chat. “But you heard that, right Chat? It’s not my fault. If I heard that voice in a haunted mansion full of blood I’d run to it, you know what I mean?”

Then, over the Discord chat where everyone is supposed to be muted, is Rude’s voice: “Hi.” And Reno watches on his screen as his character is instantly killed by Rude, who then walks away as though there’s nothing amiss. Reno gets a boner despite himself. “Holy shit,” he says, staring forward. “Did y’all see that shit? He just came up out of nowhere, _unmuted_ and broke my damn neck.” He licks his lips. “I’ve met my soulmate, everyone.”

The next meeting starts off loud.

SilverSword: I’m sorry, Polite Rude, can you explain what the fuck that little ‘hi’ was?  
Breath)fFreshAerith: _And_ Reno’s dead. Did you actually scare him to death?  
CloudyDaze: A little death maybe.  
PolitelyRude: Oh, shit. Sorry. I forgot to mute myself, I normally play real quiet, and my roommate came into the room.

Reno stares at the screen in disbelief. “That bitch!” he yells, pointing. “He’s lying! He’s taking advantage of being a newbie after he SEXY killed me!”

BigBearett: I… Still don’t know if I can believe him. I can’t get a read on him.  
CloudyDaze: I dunno, Rude was with me for most of that round.  
Yufster: Okay, it’s Cloud and Rude.  
CloudyDaze: What! Why!

Reno is barely paying attention to the game, now that he’s dead. He opens up Discord to find the one member he doesn’t have on his friends list. He sends the invite, and makes a little pleased sound that it’s instantly accepted. He glances back to the game screen to see they’ve all voted Rude — rightfully — off. He glances at his chat, winking but saying nothing, to send a private message out to Rude, whose chat name is simply ‘SunglassesEmoji’, which was his avatar as well.

Reno: I’m smug as hell that you didn’t get away with that big fat lie. Doesn’t play muted, my ass.  
SunglassesEmoji: You got me. But it caught your attention, didn’t it?  
Reno: What, were you trying to get it?  
SunglassesEmoji: Real hard.  
Reno: Try later.

Reno’s eyes lift to his chat and he already knows his face is going red again. “Well everyone, it’s time for me to turn face cam off before you turn my damn face into another meme. It wasn’t funny the last time!”

When the series of games ends, Reno signs off from the squad stream as well to his own Chat. He shuts off his circle lights and enjoys the darkness and quiet of the room with no constant stream of less-than-royalty-free music and his friends’ voices. Just the sound of his PC’s fan humming.

His Discord pings.

SunglassesEmoji: Here’s the point where I throw out my pole to fish for your attention.  
Reno: your pole, huh?  
SunglassesEmoji: Oh fuck  
SunglassesEmoji: That came out wrong  
Reno: did it ;)  
SunglassesEmoji: wanna vc?

Reno’s eyes light up at the abbreviation for ‘voice chat’, and he throws his headphones on before he calls the other man. Next, his ears are filled with Rude’s voice and no one else’s, no judgmental eyes from Chat either.

Rude: So, about my pole.  
Reno: Ohh, daddy.  
(Both laugh)  
Rude: Sorry, genuinely. I just meant I’ve been trying to get your attention in TwarkChat for a while. I like your streams.  
Reno: Oh, god. Now I feel like an even bigger asshole.  
Rude: You’re a busy boy. I’m not a full time streamer. I don’t know how you can do it.  
Reno: (sarcastically) It’s real hard to play games all day, Rude. Whaddyou do if you’re not streaming with Veep all the time?  
Rude: I’m a personal trainer. I’m Rufus’ personal trainer, actually.  
Reno: …  
Reno: Do you…train him… Um…  
Rude: If you’re asking what I think you’re asking,  
Reno: (quickly) I am, sorry, I shouldn’t,  
Rude: I don’t. He’s my friend, but I don’t think I’m his type.  
Reno: And now I’ll never know, will I? You one of those faceless streamers?  
Rude: Yeah, for now. But if you want, I can send you something to gauge whether I’m your type.  
Reno: Damn. Are you serious?  
Rude: Deadly.  
Reno: You _were_ fishing for my attention, weren’t you?  
Rude: What can I say? You’re hot _and_ Rufus trusts you.  
Reno: Okay, why didn’t you just ask Rufus to introduce us?  
Rude: What do you think this was?  
Reno: (pausing) You mean he didn’t want to actually play with the Life Streamers?  
Rude: I mean, I don’t know, you’d have to ask him, but it was all under the guise of introducing us.  
Reno: So I probably shouldn’t send you a picture of my dick right now.  
Rude: (laughing) Second date?  
Reno: …I guess I can wait that long. Wanna play a game together?  
Rude: Love to.

Later, Reno sent a private message to Rufus:

 _Hey, I don’t appreciate the DECEPTION. I thought you wanted to boost Life Streamers’ content! I’ll remember this! PS thank you for Rude, can he please come over and train me personally?_  
Thanks,  
Reno

**Author's Note:**

> Based very closely off of Jason Sulli and Corpse Husband's interactions while playing Among Us.
> 
> Dedicated to my k*fi supporters Chrissi & Sel!
> 
> PS, it totally was Cloud and Rude.


End file.
